This application relates to an image pickup apparatus for picking up left and right viewpoint images, for example, for a stereoscopic vision.
Various image pickup apparatus have been proposed and developed heretofore. For example, a camera which is an image pickup apparatus and includes an image pickup lens and a shutter capable of changing over between transmission and blocking, that is, between opening and closing, for each of left and right regions has been proposed. A camera of the type just described is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No. 1060618, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-34056 or JP-T-H 9-505906. In the camera described, opening and closing of the shutter for the regions are time-divisionally changed over alternately so that two different images, that is, a left viewpoint image and a right viewpoint image, which look as if they were imaged in left and right viewpoint directions, can be acquired. By presenting the left viewpoint image and the right viewpoint image to the eyes of a human being using a predetermined technique, the human being can feel a stereoscopic effect from the images.
Most of such image pickup apparatus are directed to a still picture. However, also image pickup apparatus directed to a moving picture have been proposed and are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-271534 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-137203. In those image pickup apparatus, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensor of the global shutter type wherein light reception driving is carried out plane-sequentially is used preconditionally as an image sensor.